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Indian national pleads guilty in plot to kill Gurpatwant Pannun
Gupta was arrested in June 2023 in the Czech Republic and extradited to the US. By pleading guilty, he avoids trial in a case that inflamed tensions in the US-India relationship
An Indian national admitted to his role in a foiled 2023 criminal plot to kill the legal adviser for banned Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
Nikhil Gupta, 54, pleaded guilty at a federal court hearing in New York on Friday to three charges linked to a plan to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
Gupta was arrested in June 2023 in the Czech Republic and extradited to the US. By pleading guilty, he avoids trial in a case that inflamed tensions in the US-India relationship.
Prosecutors claimed Gupta was part of a group working with the Indian government to target Sikh separatists overseas, including the June 2023 shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar by masked gunmen in Western Canada. In the New York case, the US said Gupta hired an assassin to kill Pannun, on the orders of Vikash Yadav, an officer with India’s external intelligence agency who is also charged in the case.
Gupta has been held without bail since his arrival in the US. He faces decades in prison. Yadav remains in India.
India has claimed Pannun is a terrorist and outlawed his group, which advocates for an independent Sikh homeland, calling it a threat to India’s territorial integrity. Gupta’s court appearances have been regularly attended by a group of Sikh men who sit together in the gallery behind Gupta.
